The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) opens on 5 November 2007 with the inaugural exhibition ’85 New Wave: The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art, the first major exhibition exploring the revolutionary ’85 New Wave Movement of artistic and social transformation. On view through 17 February 2008, ’85 New Wave is the first comprehensive exhibition focused on the revolutionary period in art history when Chinese artists began reinventing their own culture, breaking free from decades of socialist realism to begin a process of intense experimentation. The exhibition includes 137 seminal works representing a wide range of media (painting, photography, video, installation) by 30 artists and collectives from the period, including Wang Guangyi, Xu Bing, Geng Jianyi, Huang Yongping and Zhang Peili, among others.Curated by UCCA Artistic Director Fei Dawei, who was an active participant of the ’85 Movement, the exhibition sheds light on a critical period in history that is largely unknown, in part because a great number of the works produced during that time were lost or dispersed abroad. Though the Movement produced some of the most important works of contemporary Chinese art, world attention did not start focusing on China until the late 1990s, when the country’s economic growth and the work of the so-called Political Pop artists made Chinese art highly fashionable. “The ’85 Movement represents a watershed in contemporary Chinese art history, which departed from tradition and pointed to a new direction. It also gave rise to a group of globally influential works and artists who have shaped the direction and structure of Chinese art and its relationship with the world,” says Fei Dawei. “At no time has such an exhibition seemed more necessary than today, 20 years after the Movement has run its course. Looking back at the ’85 era allows us to gain perspective on our current situation, enabling us to rethink the meaning of art.”The Movement broke through 30 years of cultural seclusion, bringing Chinese art on par with international contemporary art. The development of modern Chinese art had been seriously eroded, leaving only traces from which to reinvent a new culture. Working almost from scratch, artists created a parallel and alternative contemporary art history to the West that revolutionized Chinese art from a doctrine of strict socialist realism to mature experimental and conceptual practice in just a few years.Artists represented in the exhibition (in alphabetical order) are: Chen Zhen, Ding Yi, Geng Jianyi, Gu Dexin, Gu Wenda, Huang Yongping, Li Shan, Liu Zhenggang, Lv Shengzhong, Mao Xuhui, Pan Dehai, Shen Yuan, Shu Qun, Song Haidong, Sun Liang, Tactile Art, Wang Guangyi, Wang Yi, Wang Youshen, Wei Guangqing, Wu Shanzhuan, Xia Xiaowan, Xiamen Dada, Xiao Lu, Xinkedu Group, Xu Bing, Yang Jiechang, Yu Youhan, Zhang Peili and Zhang Xiaogang.The exhibition also marks the publication of many previously unpublished documentary materials and manuscripts, opening a window on the deeply layered intellectual activity of the period. Included will be a rich selection of ephemeral items, including letters, manuscripts, sketches, photos and rare videos that contextualize the works on view.The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated, 380-page catalogue with essays by leading Chinese art critic, curator and scholar Huang Zhuang and UCCA’S Artistic Director Fei Dawei, published by the Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing House. A related series of seminars, collectively titled The ’85 New Wave Today, will be held at UCCA on 3 and 4 November, 2007, followed by a series of monthly lectures by artists, curators and critics, and a film screening program highlighting Chinese films from the 1980s.Also on view for the UCCA opening is a Site Commission by artist Lawrence Weiner. The new large-scale work, titled To Allow the Light, is a colorful and dynamic combination of lettering and graphics in English and Chinese. On view through spring 2008, the commission marks Weiner’s first exhibition in Mainland China. Weiner’s films, publications and posters also will be on view, complementing the installation.